I’m not bragging but…

has anyone spent an entire day to make a video just for you? Read on, cuz it happened for me last week!

Remember the post I did last week on other personal branding blogs? The last link was a “funny” thing referencing advice on how to get personal branding…. it was something like this:

1. put cheese on your face
2. sit on a subway train (or whatever – it probably won’t work if you commute alone in your car ;))
3. … and then something like “wait for the branding to begin”

I thought it was funny because you will brand yourself as the guy that always wears cheese on his face, right? Isn’t this somewhat similar to the guy that always wears a nametag, everywhere he goes??

So the owners of that blog who manage an art studio and do creative stuff (I have not one creative bone in my body) commented and said “you wait until tomorrow – we’re cooking up a better personal branding scheme.” And so they did – this one had my in stitches because when I was a teenager a friend “borrowed” the yellow Post-It notes (from his employer) and would cover his friend’s cars with them… check out what they came up with (and I promise I’ll wrap this up into a meaningful message at the end!):

(click here to see the video)

So this is cleaner than the cheese thing, and you can be known as the Post-It Note guy. It is more interactive because when you sit down and see someone looking at you (which they will) you approach them to ask them for a pen (as opposed to just sitting there waiting for it to sink in).

…. that’s not how I’m wrapping it up, don’t worry 😉 I thought this was clever because you need to think about what you can do that is different to create, enhance or reinforce your personal brand. It may be as out-of-the-box as the post-it-note thing. Here are some examples that I’ve seen in the last year that I can recall off the top of my head – they were catchy enough to be memorable:

1. At a conference everyone in the booth wore the same clothes (I think black everything) and YELLOW old-fashioned Converse shoes. They really really stood out amongst all the suits, and everyone soon came to know who they were.
2. At a seminar I went to a few weeks ago a guy handed me his card. I have the coolest card in Salt Lake but this guy gave me something very memorable. On his card was his basic contact information on the right, and on the left was nothing except the words “MY CARD” which was centered. It got a chuckle out of me because it was unique.
3. My SOB award giver has a great signature: first line: Smiles, second line: Liz, third line: a 65th crayon, if there ever was one – makes you think… color? creativity? sense of humor? All of the above.

Just some examples. I don’t expect you to be overly-silly. The branding only works if it really reflects who you are, and you have a long-term committment to it. But once you figure out little ways that you will stand out it will be very effective in a business setting, in an interview setting, etc.

One word to the wise, however, be especially careful how you come across in the interview – you don’t want a branding experiment to brand you as a nut-case!